So, not a lot has happened here in the past 2 weeks. We hit a lull, and have quickly realized what the next 6-8 months are going to feel like!
I'll back up a bit...
After completing our last homestudy visit on September 6th, we quickly compiled the rest of our Dossier paperwork. Apparently, the Congo dossier is extremely simple, and it didn't take long before we had everything we needed:
1. Certified copies of each of our birth certificates and our marriage license. We got these about 6 weeks ago, knowing we would need them and this is something we could work on getting ahead of time.
2. Copies of passports. Simple trip to the copy store and this was done.
3. A passport size photo of each of us. We got an extra passport photo from when we got our passport in May for Haiti. Pulled them out of the file and that's done.
4. State Criminal Clearances. This we would have had to wait for but we asked our homestudy social worker if we could just have her copies when she was done with them and she happily obliged! This saved us a lot of time, and we received them in the mail from her - pretty simple!
5. Medical Letter on doctor letterhead. This was a bit tricky. We had worked ahead on this one as well, but then realized there was a very specific template that needed to be signed by the doctors. So, the ones we got previously signed were not ones we could use. (I suppose working ahead isn't always a benefit when you don't have all the information you need). It was fine though that we had to get them redone because Sam's doctor had signed a template with the "Enter patient's name here" and "Patient's Date of Birth" still in the letter - the things he was supposed to take out to personalize the letter were still very much in there...haha,I told Sam next time to just ask him to sign a paper saying he would give away all of his money or something! My doctor was the bigger issue, because in the letter it stated, "Laura is free of all communicable diseases. Tests for HIV and Tuberculosis were negative..." My doctor wouldn't sign it unless I were actually tested for HIV and Tuberculosis. Luckily our local Public Health could do these tests for under $30 instead of the $500 it was going to cost me at my doctor's office! So, I feel I should announce...I do not have Tuberculosis or HIV :)
6. Copy of State Adoption Laws. Our agency already had them for Iowa, so that was taken care of for us.
7. Two letters we had to sign and get notarized. One stated we would maintain contact with our children's biological family if we were asked to, and the other stated that at least one of us would travel to the Congo to pick up our children. This was simple besides the first notary didn't stamp it, claiming she didn't have to. We just took it to another notary since it was obvious she was pretty convinced she didn't have to stamp it.
So that's it - for the past 3 weeks, we have had all of our paperwork completed, and were just waiting for our homestudy report to be completed. We also got some projects done around the house, so we didn't have a lot to focus on with the adoption...
And boy was it ever agonizing! I really cannot complain - our process has gone very quickly so far. We started in July, and didn't start any of the paperwork until August. That's only 2 months, some people spend 6 or more just getting everything in order! And then spend the next 2 years waiting to go get their child! I'm extremely grateful we chose the Congo, I do not have the patience for a 2 year adoption plan!! I want my kiddos NOW!!! :)
So the good news is....last night we got the draft of our homestudy! We reviewed it to let her know of any changes that needed to be made, and then she sent it on to our agency to be proofread. Once the agency reviews it and makes sure it meets all requirements, she can get our 3 copies notarized and we will be set to send in all of our paperwork! Which means most likely by the end of this week....
WE ARE READY FOR A REFERRAL!!!!!
We cannot believe that we could potentially know who are children are going to be by Friday. That would be extremely quick, but from what our social worker at the agency has said, there are waiting children and we shouldn't have to wait for a referral since we are willing to accept older children, special needs, siblings...I pray she's right and we will know soon, because I really really need to see my babies faces.
There is of course two sides to that...There is ONE form left that cannot be completed right away. It is the US Government form I-600A, which is the golden seal that will approve us for adoption. If we don't have that, we cannot adopt. The problem is, we can't send that form in to start that process until we have our homestudy. So, once we get our homestudy report by Wednesday or Thursday this week, we can mail in that form. It takes 5-7 weeks to come back to us, which is okay with our agency. But that means we cannot start any of the in-country processes to get this adoption finalized any quicker until that form gets turned in. So, we will KNOW who our children are, but will be WAITING that much longer to go get them. They said it takes an average of 6 months from the time the in-country court processes start to when we can travel to go get our children, so if we can't start the in-country processes until December, that's June before we can travel. There is always a chance the processes will slow down at any time with no warning, so it's not that predictable, but that's the way the timeframe is currently looking...
Now, again, I'm not complaining. In the scheme of adoption - that's still incredibly fast! We could be done start to finish in 10 months...That's really really fast. But in the scheme of my mind and my longing to hold my children, it's really slow :) However, people do it all the time with pregnancy, so we can do it too! :)
So, we just wanted to share this little piece of encouraging hope!! We could know who our kids are very soon! We cannot post pictures of them online anywhere because of child trafficking, but you will all know when we get a referral!! :) Keep up the prayers!
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